Saer's 2014 Halloween Costume Contest Entry: The White Rabbit

[Saer]

Hello everyone! This is my first thread here (but not my first costume). I'm currently working on a costume of the White Rabbit from the game Alice: Madness Returns. I've seen quite a lot of Alice cosplays on this year's cons, but not really any of the side characters. Plus we had a rabbit mask base lying around.

Finished photos and proof photo for the contest

Here's the reference of the character:



I started out with the head, using a modified rabbit mask blank from DreamVisionCreations as a base and further modified it with foam. The original base features a moving jaw but I decided against that, since the teeth are really large. The eyes are vacuumformed plastic (covered in plastic wrap with test pupils)



I then covered the head with a piece of fur and added the nose which is fake leather:



I created the teeth from white foam:



I then covered the teeth in white plasti-dip and painted them:



Next were the ears and the hat. The ears are made from thin foam, fake leather and plastic at the base for stability. The hat is foam.



I then painted and added the eyes and teeth, covered the hat with fabric and airbrushed both the fur and the hat:



The head is now only missing the whiskers. (And yes, it has a neck, it's just sitting on a dummy with no head there)

Next up were the feet, they're black foam with a neopren boot as a base, covered with fur.



I then made the jacket:



(Sorry for the tiny photo) The arms are not finished yet, as I want to make the gloves first.

Next up was the vest. I found a super cool golden fabric with a sort of wood texture that has the perfect color. The buttons are wood that I cut with a lasercutter and then sanded. (The label in the vest is my own). The left button is straight out of the lasercutter, the right one is sanded.



I then made the legs, using neoprene pants as a base and adding the calf, thigh and butt foam paddings. The tail has a foam base as well and covered with a long white fur that was airbrushed, since I couldn't find any long fur in the base fur color.

Here's a photo of everything together so far:



(None of the clothes are ironed yet haha)

I then lasercut the buttons for the ... gaiters? The things on the legs. Right is straight out of the lasercutter, left is sanded. I spray painted them black and they're drying at the moment.



Then I made the claws for the feet, I glued two pieces of foam together and sanded them round. Then I covered them with a first coat of black plasti-dip, they're currently drying.



I had also sculpted and made a mold of the handclaws, but those are at home. I also need to find a nice fabric/scarf for the scarf, the one's I found are all the wrong color.

I hope you guys like this project, and I hope to get it finished for Halloween!

Bonus front view of the head that looks just as crazy as needed:

 

[Grimwood]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Wow this is great work!!

 

[division 6]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Very cool.

I take it you see out the inner edges of the eye's?
All that foam and neoprene is going to get really warm.

You may want to think about putting some fans in the head to help keep you cool.

 

[ahoudini]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Just my favorite kind of rpf build thread: amazing people showing off extraordinary depth of talent is one thing, but how about breadth? How many people can run a laser cutter, an airbrush and a sewing machine? Really great work and thank you so much for sharing!

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Thanks guys!

I take it you see out the inner edges of the eye's?
All that foam and neoprene is going to get really warm.

You may want to think about putting some fans in the head to help keep you cool.

Yeah, there's a small mesh at the inner egde.
Since it's just the legs that are foam, fur and neoprene it's actually not that warm and I've worn warmer costumes before. The important things are hydration and getting enough minerals, which is why I prefer to always take enough water, some apples and pretzel sticks with me to conventions for these costumes.

There is actually no room left in the head to put fans, it's a rather small head (I can only fit my giant glasses in there because of the big eyes) and fans don't really help a lot with cooling in masks like this in my opinion. I have several other heads and only one has fans. The difference is almost unnoticable, it get's warm and wet anyways /: But you get used to it.



I finished the claws and leg thingies (gaiters?) today, now everything except for the hands is pretty much done. The feet and gaiters will be airbrushed once I get back home.



And a close-up of the finished buttons:



I think they turned out really cool (and would probably also work for a Coraline cosplay)

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Collar and scarf are done, the scarf will be airbrushed the right color... once I get back home.

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

I decided to make the claws for tha hands out of foam as well, a bit bigger than the ones I sculpted at home. Maybe I'll make a second set of gloves with resin claws at some point.

Claws lasercut from foam, then glued together, sanded and the first coat of plasti-dip.



Today wasn't really my day though... Got my finger caught in the locks of the vacuum former, got a manicure from the belt sander and another burn on my hand from the heat gun.

 

[ahoudini]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Are you making this at a maker space or does your home shop have these great tools?!?

Hope you heal fast, and, again, just stellar work!!

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Thank you!

I'm currently at my internship place (until tomorrow) so I can use all the tools and materials here. I don't even really have a home shop (just a tiny basement room for sculpting and casting).

I continued today with the gloves (and noticed that I still hate sewing gloves somehow). I made a pattern that's quite larger than my hand and made sure that the fingertips were wide enough for the claws to fit into. The gloves are made from the leftover glove fabric of my Khajiit cosplay, lined with a thin foam lining to make them stay in shape since they are so big.

Quick test to see if the claws fit:



And then finished the gloves:


(sorry for the kinda bad photo)

Here are the painted claws:

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

And the hands are all done! I actually already finished them this morning but forgot to upload the pictures



There's a thin (but very strong) piece of foam just behind the claws to help the fabric keep it's shape. I will hopefully finish airbrushing the feet and stuff tomorrow and attach the whiskers, then I'll see if I can get a good photo of the whole suit.

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Whiskers attached, the head is now done;

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

Aaand my cat just earned the award for being the biggest jerk. I just found out that he decided to pee on the leg gaiters that fell off the chair at night. Thank you cat. Now I'm going to cut off the buttons, throw them into the washing machine and hope that they turn out alright.... And that we have a thick black thread to see the buttons back on. Yay.

 

[spike666]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

This is amazing - Well done.

 

[Saer]

Re: Alice: Madness Returns - The White Rabbit

All done! It was super foggy outside after Halloween, which was cool for taking pictures.



(And the proof photo for the contest)

 

[Michael Bergeron]

This entry is complete. :thumbsup